Part 18 (1/2)

Put to six ounces of hops five quarts of water, and boil them three hours--then strain off the liquor, and put to the hops four quarts more of water, a tea-cup full of ginger, and boil the hops three hours longer. Strain and mix it with the rest of the liquor, and stir in a couple of quarts of mola.s.ses. Take about half a pound of bread, and brown it very slowly--when very brown and dry, put it in the liquor, to enrich the beer. Rusked bread is the best for this purpose, but a loaf of bread cut in slices, and toasted till brittle, will do very well.

When rusked bread is used, pound it fine, and brown it in a pot, as you would coffee, stirring it constantly. When the hop liquor cools, so as to be just lukewarm, add a pint of new yeast, that has no salt in it.

Keep the beer covered in a temperate situation, till it has ceased fermenting, which is ascertained by the subsiding of the froth--turn it off carefully into a beer keg, or bottles. The beer should not be corked very tight, or it will burst the bottles. It should be kept in a cool place.

340. _Beer of Essential Oils._

Mix a couple of quarts of boiling water with a pint and a half of mola.s.ses. Stir in five quarts of cold water, then add ten drops of the oil of sa.s.safras, ten of spruce, fifteen of winter-green, and a tea-spoonful of essence of ginger. When just lukewarm, put in half a pint of fresh lively yeast. When fermented, bottle and cork it, and keep it in a cool place. It will be fit to drink in the course of two or three days.

341. _Spring Beer._

Take a small bunch of all, or part of the following: Sweet fern, sarsaparilla, winter-green, sa.s.safras, prince's pine, and spice wood.

Boil them with two or three ounces of hops to three or four gallons of water, and two or three raw potatoes, pared and cut in slices. The strength of the roots and hops is obtained more thoroughly by boiling them in two waters--for, when the liquor is strongly saturated with the hops, it will rather bind up the roots than extract their juices. The roots should be boiled five or six hours--the liquor should then be strained, and a quart of mola.s.ses put to three gallons of the beer. If you wish to have the beer very rich, brown half a pound of bread, and put it into the liquor. If the liquor is too thick, dilute it with cold water. When just lukewarm, put in a pint of fresh lively yeast, that has no salt in it. The salt has a tendency to keep it from fermenting. Keep it in a temperate situation, covered over, but not so tight as to exclude the air entirely, or it will not work. When fermented, keep it in a tight keg, or bottle and cork it up.

342. _Ginger Beer._

Boil gently, in a gallon of water, three table-spoonsful of cream of tartar, three of ginger, and a lemon cut in slices. When it has boiled half an hour, take it from the fire, strain and sweeten it to your taste--white sugar is the best, but brown sugar or mola.s.ses answers very well. Put to it, when lukewarm, half a pint of fresh yeast. Turn it off carefully, when fermented, bottle it, and keep it in a cool place. It will be fit to drink in the course of seven or eight days.

343. _Instantaneous Beer._

Put to a pint and a half of water four tea-spoonsful of ginger, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice--sweeten it to the taste with syrup or white sugar, and turn it into a junk bottle. Have ready a cork to fit the bottle, a string of wire to tie it down, and a mallet to drive in the cork. Then put into the bottle a heaping tea-spoonful of the super-carbonate of soda, cork it immediately, tie it down, then shake the whole up well, cut the string, and the cork will fly out. Turn it out, and drink immediately.

344. _Mixed Wine._

Take equal parts of ripe currants, grapes, raspberries, and English cherries. Bruise them, then mix cold water with them, in the proportion of four pounds of fruit to a gallon of water. Let the whole remain half a day. Stir the whole up well, then strain it--to each gallon of it put three pounds of sugar. Keep it in a temperate situation, where it will ferment slowly, three or four days--stir it up frequently. When fermented, add a ninth part of brandy to it, and stop it up tight--when it becomes clear, bottle it. In the course of a year it will be fit to drink.

345. _Currant Wine._

Strain the currants, which should be perfectly ripe. To each quart of juice put a couple of quarts of water, and three pounds of sugar--stir the whole well together, and let it stand twenty-four hours, without stirring--then skim and set it in a cool place, where it will ferment slowly. Let it remain three or four days--if, at the end of that time, it has ceased fermenting, add one quart of French brandy to every fifteen gallons of the liquor, and close up the barrel tight. When it becomes clear, it is fit to bottle. This will be good in the course of six months, but it is much improved by being kept several years.

346. _Grape Wine._

Bruise the grapes, which should be perfectly ripe. To each gallon of grapes put a gallon of water, and let the whole remain a week, without being stirred. At the end of that time, draw off the liquor carefully, and put to each gallon three pounds of lump sugar. Let it ferment in a temperate situation--when fermented, stop it up tight. In the course of six months it will be fit to bottle.

347. _To mull Wine._

To a pint of water put a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves and cinnamon.

Set it where it will boil--then separate the whites and yelks of three eggs, and beat the yelks with a large spoonful of powdered white sugar.

As soon as the water boils, turn it on to the yelks and sugar--add a pint of wine, and turn the beaten whites of the eggs over the whole.

348. _Quince Cordial._